49ers hit the road

Here’s the full text of the San Francisco 49ers announcement today that they are looking to build their new stadium in Santa Clara. (You can read our news story here.):

49ers Shift Focus of New Stadium Effort to City of Santa Clara

Team says fan experience comes first in evaluation of site, decides not to move forward with approval process at Candlestick Point

The San Francisco 49ers announced Wednesday that the team is shifting the focus of its efforts to build a new stadium from the City of San Francisco to the City of Santa Clara, where the team currently has its headquarters and training facility.

The announcement comes after a year of study by the team, its development partner, Lennar Corporation, and San Francisco officials to determine if Candlestick Point could support a new state-of-the-art NFL stadium and an adjacent major mixed-use development that would have played a key role in helping to privately finance the project. After careful deliberation, the team came to the conclusion that the project would not have offered the optimal game day experience it is seeking to create for fans, and has therefore decided not to move forward with the public approval process at Candlestick Point.

The decision stemmed from the incompatible land requirements of the stadium and mixed-use development at the site. The project would have created massive new infrastructure and public transit needs, and the size of the development would take up much of the space fans currently use for parking and tailgating, requiring the construction of one of the largest parking garages in the world. Additionally, the complexity of the approval process placed the team’s goal of opening the new stadium in time for the 2012 NFL season in jeopardy.

“We hired the best experts and advisors in the business and worked tirelessly with the City and Lennar to move forward with this project at Candlestick Point,” said team owner John York. “I want to commend Mayor Newsom and his staff and Lennar for their support and determination over the past year in this enormous undertaking. This decision is not a reflection of their efforts, but rather the geographic challenges of this site.”

As a result of today’s decision, the team will now concentrate its efforts on evaluating a new stadium in Santa Clara, near the Great America amusement park and the Santa Clara Convention Center. The location is served by several six-to-eight-lane thoroughfares built to accommodate high traffic volumes, which would offer easy access to fans from multiple freeways that connect throughout the Bay Area. In addition, there are many forms of public transportation nearby, including some that would reach fans as far away as Sacramento.

“We’re excited to work with Santa Clara officials to discuss this project,” said York. “Based on our initial analysis, Santa Clara has strong potential to deliver the game day experience our fans deserve.”

York assured fans that despite the shift in focus to Santa Clara, the team would not consider changing its name under any circumstances. “Nothing will persuade us to change the name of the San Francisco 49ers, one of the most storied brands in the world of sports.”

Next, the team will meet with officials in Santa Clara to develop a set of shared goals for exploring the project, and begin discussions. “We’re proud to have the San Francisco 49ers as part of our community,” said Santa Clara Mayor Patricia Mahan. “We have been looking to expand our entertainment options in the Great America/Convention Center area for years, and this stadium can be a great addition. The 49ers have been clear that their goal is to put together a project that has no impact on the City’s general fund and no increase in taxes, and we are ready to give this project our full attention,” she added.

Today’s announcement is the culmination of the second attempt by the 49ers to develop a stadium project at Candlestick Point, the location of its current 46-year-old venue, Monster Park. The team first partnered with retail developer Mills Corporation in 1997 to explore the potential of a stadium project linked to an adjacent shopping mall, but Mills was unable to create a feasible plan. The team then partnered with Lennar in 2005 to take a fresh look at the project, resulting in a mixed-use development concept.

While Candlestick Point is visually appealing, its geographic boundaries made it challenging for this proposed project. Candlestick Point is surrounded by the San Francisco Bay on three sides, with a large hill near the area’s only highway that seals much of the land off from the rest of the City. The area also has limited and deteriorating road access that would have been overwhelmed by the stadium and the planned mixed-use development, which featured 6,500 new housing units. Engineers determined that hundreds of millions of dollars in infrastructure improvements were required to accommodate the project, possibly exceeding the cost of the proposed $600 to $800 million stadium.

Transportation difficulties in the area were heightened by the lack of access to many forms of public transit that are available in other parts of the City. Since the mixed-use development would have consumed the lots currently used as surface parking by fans on game days, the project required the construction of a massive multi-level garage. “We know that’s counter-intuitive for a public-transit-first City like San Francisco,” added York. Not only would this have snarled traffic as fans tried to enter and exit en masse, it would have also severely limited the fans’ ability to tailgate, which is a popular local tradition. Even with a garage of this size, many fans would still have had to park in satellite lots and be shuttled to the stadium. The conditions for fans at Candlestick Point would have been further exacerbated by the demolition of Monster Park and the gradual piecing together of the mixed-use development, placing fans in a construction zone for a decade.

The sum of these challenges was compounded by a lengthy approval process required before construction could begin, due to the site’s bay-front location and the need to breach the abutting Candlestick Point State Recreation Area to make room for the project. Of particular concern was the need to approve a complex land and trust exchange to permit the development of condominiums on property currently owned by California State Parks. In total, these hurdles made success at this site unrealistic in the team’s timeframe.

York said that while the team has done some preliminary evaluation in Santa Clara, there is a lot of work to be done to determine if the site will work for a new stadium. He added that the team will continue to use the design of the interior of the stadium that it shared with the public earlier this summer, and that it is committed to its goal of constructing a new state-of-the-art stadium for its fans by the start of the 2012 NFL season.

If the 49ers are unable to move forward with the project in Santa Clara, the team plans to continue its search for a location for a new stadium exclusively within the Bay Area. “The 49ers have called the Bay Area home for our entire 60 year history. We are a part of the fabric of this region, and we intend to stay right here where we belong,” concluded York.